Francesca Ferrari, department

chair of Medical Qigong Science

at Five Branches University,

demonstrates a medical

qigong exercise.

If today’s medical students have their way,

alternative treatments such as acupuncture and

herbs will become a fully integrated part of

Western medicine. In the largest national study

conducted to date, published in the journal,

Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative

Medicine in January 2010, researchers from the

University of California Los Angeles and San Diego

found that 77 percent of medical students believe

that patients whose doctors are knowledgeable about

complementary and alternative medicine benefit

more than those whose doctors are trained only in

Western medicine.

This study mirrors a trend in American healthcare:

according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, 38.1 million American adults made an

estimated 354.2 million visits to practitioners of

complementary and alternative medicine in 2007. As

healthcare options such as acupuncture, herbal

remedies, and massage become more widely accept-

ed, career opportunities have opened up for well-

educated practitioners.

Ron Zaidman and Joanna Zhao, co-founders of Five

Branches University Graduate School of Traditional

Chinese Medicine in San Jose and Santa Cruz, have

been promoting alternative healthcare for decades.

They founded the school, which offers master’s,

doctoral, and certificate programs, 26 years ago.

Zhao, born and raised in Shanghai, knew from a

young age that she wanted to be a doctor. “When I

was a child, the teacher would always ask, ‘What do

you want to do when you grow up?’ In elementary

school I decided I wanted to be a doctor. Before

graduation from high school, I had some palpitations

By jennIfer moscatellophotographs By lane johnson

for health and a careerlooking east

BAy AReA LIFe VIBRAnT HeALTH eCo-LIVInG eUCALyPTUSMAGAZIne.CoM

A vision for alternative

education: Joanna Zhao

and Ron Zaidman, co-

founders of Five Branches

University, share a

passion for educating

students in traditional

Chinese medicine.

and went to see a Western doctor. He gave me some medicine and I

felt a little better, but I still had issues. So my mother took me by

bus an hour away to see an acupuncturist and herbalist. One

treatment and I got better.”

The experience inspired Zhao to study traditional Chinese

medicine (TCM), which quickly became her lifelong passion. “When I

came to this country, I wanted to practice this medicine and teach.

This is a treasure of the Chinese [culture]... I wanted to share this

treasure with the whole world.”

Ron Zaidman discovered TCM during a mid-life hiatus from the

fast-paced business world. For Zaidman, starting Five Branches

University was a way to increase his own understanding of TCM

while helping others learn at the same time. Zaidman and Zhao

founded the school on the philosophies of long-standing Chinese

universities, where teachings of TCM are regulated and consistent

from one school to the next. Typically, the schools incorporate

Western medicine with TCM to ensure a holistic approach.

“Our curriculum imitates what they have in China, and that’s

what makes it so strong,” says Zaidman.

The primary healthcare for more than 20 percent of the world’s

population, TCM is the fastest growing healthcare category in the

United States. Historians believe that acupuncture, one of the five

tenets of TCM, originated in China about 3,000 years ago. Used in

conjunction with Qigong, massage, herbs, and diet, these five

looking east

In the last decade, the National Center for Complementary and

Alternative Medicine, a federal agency under the Department of

Health and Human Services, gave $22.5 million to 12 medical schools,

two nursing schools, and the American Medical Student Association

to develop curriculum plans around complementary and alternative

medicine. Currently many Western medical schools—Harvard Univer-

sity and Johns Hopkins University among them—offer courses in

these therapies. The prestigious not-for-profit Mayo Clinic, with

locations in Minnesota, Florida, and Arizona, employs acupuncture

for a number of ailments, including pain management, drug addic-

tion, and anxiety relief.

Insurance providers are increasingly giving the nod to alternative

treatments, also, providing coverage for therapies such as acupuncture

Clockwise from top

left: Professor Lucy Hu

teaches acupuncture

with electric stimulation

in a classroom setting;

in a clinical rounds class,

Professor George Lu and

student Leanne Hewlin

assess a patient with a

shoulder injury; student

oscar Hernandez

performs Tuina massage

to relieve a patient’s

tight hamstrings;

student Glenna Maple

practices the fine points

of acupuncture.

“branches” form the basis of TCM and are used to maintain the

health of the body and its energy force, or Qi. TCM practitioners

believe that a person’s health is dependent upon its Qi, which

moves along an array of 12 interconnected channels, called

meridians, throughout the body. When experiencing stress, illness,

or injury, a person’s Qi can become unbalanced or blocked, which

can exacerbate an unhealthy condition.

By employing the five branches of therapy, TCM practitioners

believe they can remove blockages and help invigorate stagnant Qi,

which activates the body’s healing response.

TCM practitioners treat each patient in a holistic manner, asking

detailed questions about his or her lifestyle, eating habits, exercise

regimen, and emotional state. Tongue and pulse readings further

inform their diagnoses.

“It is a very comprehensive treatment. You don’t only treat the

body, you treat the energy, the emotions, how [the patient] thinks.”

Zhao says.

Considering TCM’s origins, Zaidman says, “Like all traditional

medicines, it grew from people figuring out what foods and what

herbs can help with what ailments. The Chinese…were the first ones

to put things in writing. There were doctors who would go to all the

villages and ask the elders what they knew. They reflected on

nature and the seasons and built up this vocabulary of how to

understand nature and how to understand us relating to nature.

“The medicine is very profound, and the principles it’s based

upon are very eye-opening. When you see those principles, you

say, of course, that makes us understand our own harmonies

and disharmonies.”

The five branches of TcMacupuncTure a technique in which fine needles are inserted

into specific points on the patient's body to balance the flow of Qi

throughout the body

herbology internal medicine utilizing herbal formulas tailored

to the specific patient to balance disharmony

Qigong a series of postures, meditations, and breathing exercises

designed to increase health and prevent disease

DieTeTics the effect of food on human health, with emphasis on

organic food and eating in season

Tuina Massage a form of massage similar to acupressure,

designed to increase energy flow through the body’s meridians

and massage, which are typically much less expensive than tradi-

tional Western treatments. Still, Five Branches University is a

strong proponent of integrated medicine, joining the practices of

East and West.

“One third of our program is Western medicine,” Zaidman says.

“We’re primary care practitioners, so that means we have full

responsibility for patients. If a patient comes in and they’re going to

have a stroke or a heart attack, we can’t say, ‘Well, I just know

acupuncture and herbs.’ One third of our program is Western

medicine, so we can recognize red flags.”

Zhao adds, “In our doctoral program, we invite doctors from

Stanford University, from UCSF, and from Kaiser to come teach

[Western medicine]. They can sit in any other classes and learn

about TCM. Many already know the fundamentals.”

In 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) published findings

stating that acupuncture can be effectively used to treat depres-

sion, induce labor, and ease adverse reactions to chemotherapy and

radiation, among other ailments. Zhao believes that TCM can help

patients manage an even wider array of afflictions. “Acupuncture

and herbs are well known to stop pain, but they can work for so

many other problems: pneumonia, wheezing, stomach ulcer, gall

bladder stones ... treating MS and Parkinson’s patients, too. We can

delay the progress of the disease and let patients have more time

to be themselves,” she says.

Glen Kazmierski, a graduate of and now associate professor at

Five Branches, believes that the in-depth, personal nature of TCM is

critical to a practitioner’s ability to help his or her patients. “I want

to really get a sense of what’s happening and have an appreciation

for the person and their life force,” he says.

“Seeing a Chinese practitioner is very nurturing—the quality and

the amount of care. We don’t separate ourselves from our patients.

Connection is important. When you connect with a patient you see

more. A lot of Chinese medicine is very subtle. You need to be close

to a patient to really understand what’s going on.”

While some students enrolled at Five Branches University have

backgrounds in healthcare, many have chosen to reinvent them-

selves after stints in other fields. Zaidman says, “We have many

engineers here. Either in high school or as younger children they

had a vision of being a nurse or a doctor.” After pursuing other

interests, he says, “they went through some significant change in

their work and decided they don’t want to be in front of a computer

any more ... Sometimes it’s an extension of what [our students]

were doing previously—physical therapy, nursing, etc. Sometimes

it’s a complete career change.”

Once students complete one of Five Branches’ programs, some

choose to open their own clinics. Others join an MD or chiroprac-

tor’s office, sign on with employers like Kaiser Hospital, or become

teachers or researchers.

Francesca Ferrari, a graduate of Five Branches University and

now an associate professor at the school, says, “We have more and

more engineers and software people here—people with different

backgrounds. The beauty of TCM is that if you have a driven

personality and are highly inquisitive, you can’t become bored

because the knowledge is so profound and so vast and so endless.”

Glenn Kazmierski, a Five

Branches alumni and associate

professor, believes that part

of the power of traditional

Chinese medicine lies in the

nurturing connection between

doctor and patient.

books for furTher reaDingn The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine

by Ted Kaptchuk

n The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine by Maoshing ni

n Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern

Nutrition by Paul Pitchford

n Imperial Secrets of Health and Longevity by Bob Flaws

n Also check out the national Center for Complementary and

Alternative Medicine’s website: nccam.nih.gov

If today’s medIcal students have theIr way, alternatIve treatments such as acupuncture and herBs wIll Become a fully Integrated part of western medIcIne.

looking east